Detroit braces for barbs as Super Bowl comes to town

SARAH KARUSHThe Associated Press

Published Friday, December 23, 2005

DETROIT -- Less than two months before it hosts the Super Bowl, Detroit is getting ready for its big moment like a self-conscious teenager -- anxiously trying to cover up blemishes and hoping to impress the cool kids.

For a city widely associated with riots, murder and lousy weather, officials are hoping the Feb. 5 game at Ford Field will be their chance to impress a new image upon the influx of influential out-of-towners.

In recent months, the city's Super Bowl host committee has been talking up the city to national media and recruited local celebrities to join the ovation.

But behind the upbeat talk of new restaurants and trendy loft developments, a gnawing insecurity lurks: What are they going to say about us this time?

Once a booming metropolis with nearly 2 million people, Detroit's population has fallen dramatically since the 1950s.

The lure of suburbia, combined with high crime and racial tension, drove people out of the Motor City, a process that was accelerated by the 1967 riots. Today, fewer than 900,000 people call Detroit home.

Outsiders "think it's a bad place, but it's not really," said 42-year-old Tony Rice, who works as a painter in Detroit. "In every city, there are negative spots."

Even some of the city's biggest boosters acknowledge that Detroit's reputation precedes it.

Detroit native Mike Ilitch, founder of the Little Caesars pizza chain, said when he's away from home and people ask where he's from, he sometimes hesitates -- and then says, "Bloomfield Hills," the name of the affluent suburb where he lives today.

"And they'll say, 'Where's Bloomfield Hills?' and I say, 'Well, just outside of Detroit -- we have beautiful suburbs,'" said Ilitch, 76. "I say, 'Our suburbs'll stand up against any in the country.'"

But Ilitch, who owns hockey's Detroit Red Wings and baseball's Detroit Tigers, says that despite the image, he believes the city is regaining much of its former luster thanks to recent development downtown.

He and his wife have invested more than $350 million in Detroit since 1982 and expect to invest another $275 million over the next two years.

"That's why I think we're so excited (about the Super Bowl) -- that they can see it's definitely not what they perceived in the way we host the game," he said.

While the national spotlight that comes with the Super Bowl may bring opportunities, Super Bowl host cities are almost always fodder for jokes in the national media -- especially when they're not tourist-friendly, fair-weather spots like New Orleans and Miami. Before the 2005 game, Washington Post sportswriter and ESPN personality Tony Kornheiser titled a column, "What's That Smell? Jacksonville."

Comedians and commentators have never been kind to Detroit. Quips about riots and murder are standard fare whenever the Motor City is in the news.

During the 2004 NBA Finals, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Detroit would burn if the Pistons won. The comment sparked outrage in Detroit, and Kimmel's show was taken off the air for a night.

The Pistons did win, and Detroit residents celebrated without mass arson or violence. In fact, the last notable violent outbreaks in the city happened after the Tigers won the 1984 World Series and, to a lesser degree, when the Pistons won their second consecutive NBA championship in 1990.

Celebrations after the Red Wings' Stanley Cup victories in 1997, 1998 and 2002 were largely peaceful.

But that hasn't stopped the joke from being repeated.

Just last month, Jay Leno told a version of it while commenting on riots in the Paris suburbs.

"Over 1,300 cars set on fire in France -- 1,300!," Leno said. "Usually, to see that many cars on fire, you have to wait for the Detroit Pistons to win a championship."

Host committee officials hope that by courting the national media, they can keep snide remarks to a minimum.

"We know there are going to be negative articles written," committee spokesman Ken Kettenbeil said. "One thing we wanted to do is present another side of Detroit and make sure that when people write about Detroit, it's fair and balanced."

The committee began heavily promoting the city at the 2004 Super Bowl in Houston, where it had a booth in the media center designed to look like an urban loft. In Jacksonville, the committee's chairman, racing legend Roger Penske, hosted a reception aboard his yacht.

This year, committee staff have flown to New York and Washington to visit national media outlets including USA Today, Sports Illustrated, ABC, ESPN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Once here, many journalists will stay downtown in the Renaissance Center, a distinctive collection of skyscrapers owned by General Motors Corp. The game will be played nearby at Ford Field, which opened in 2002 and is a key element in efforts to breathe life back into the city's subdued center.

But visitors will also see signs of Detroit's long decay, such as the hollowed-out shell of a once-impressive train station, visible from the interstate. The city has been doing its best to clean up downtown, tearing down some vacant buildings, scrubbing off graffiti on others and giving business owners grants to improve their facades.

One thing officials can't change, however, is the weather.

This is only the third time the NFL has brought the Super Bowl to a northern city. Minneapolis hosted the event in 1992. Pontiac, Mich., 30 miles to Detroit's north, had it a decade before that.

Officials say they will be ready with plenty of snow-removal equipment in the event of a storm. And the host committee is trying to embrace the Detroit winter with a downtown festival called the Motown Winter Blast during Super Bowl week. Among the attractions are a snow slide, dog sleds and marshmallow-roasting stations.

None of that is likely to be much fun if there is a repeat of the weather at the 1982 Super Bowl. An ice storm pounded the region the day the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-21. The temperature outside the Pontiac Silverdome was 12 degrees and the wind chill was minus 27.